At Monday's Zoom Bible study (which you should check out if you haven't!), retirement came up. We all congratulated the happy retirees among us, joked that we'd be down for earlier retirement and moved on. But it got me thinking about work. I'm definitely thinking about work today since most adults don't get snow days. What's up with that?!
We spend way more time at work than we do at church. But so many of us are miserable in our jobs. We view them as a means to an end. It’s something we get through so we can get what we want (the weekend or retirement).
But what about work in the Bible? I’ll start at the beginning. In the beginning, God worked. In Genesis, God is a gardener. In the New Testament, he is a carpenter. God made it our job to develop and build this society. We’re not just here to take up space – we are here to cultivate the garden.
How we view work and how we do our work matters more than you might imagine. Jesus spent the majority of his life as a carpenter, not a rabbi. He spent more time making tables than walking on water. Jesus knew what it was like to get up and go to work every day.
The Apostle Paul said it this way: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” - Colossians 3:23-24
Work is not about economic exchange, making money or getting the dream, it’s about God-honoring human creativity and contribution.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said this: “If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.”
So, tomorrow, go to work with God in mind. Go with a divine perspective. Understand that God has you there for a reason and that wherever you are, you are a minister of the Gospel.
Pastor Lexi